Hope, Healing, and a Rescue Cat

Archive for January, 2014

Lately, Hannah and Sam have been squabbling. At dinnertime, they poke and push and shove each other.

Sam is very vocal about food–he meows and meows and meows an hour before mealtime, increasing his sounds in frequency and volume, like an alarm, until the meal is literally in his tummy (after which he smacks his lips in satisfaction). Hannah is annoyed by Sam’s meowing.

When I go into the kitchen to dish out dinner, Sam’s meows become cries. Hannah calmly and quietly enters the kitchen, and sits politely off to the side. Then, she smacks Sam upside the head.

“Stop it,” I say firmly.

Instantly, Hannah puts on a poker face. She looks up innocently, careful not to catch my eye, and scans the ceiling, as if to say, “What? Who are you speaking to? I didn’t do anything.”

Sam, slightly stunned, tries to hit Hannah back. “Stop it,” I say again, as if I’m speaking to two child siblings. Sam knows he’s in the wrong and runs off for a moment (only to return to cry for food once again).

*

The other day, I was sitting on the couch when Hannah and Sam began to squabble over who got to sit to the left of me (there was plenty of room to the right of me as well). The poking and pushing and shoving started and I said, “Enough!” They both dashed off, then returned a couple of minutes later. But by then I’d made an executive decision: no cats allowed on the couch for the night.

I have to admit, it was a little lonely all by myself, without the two of them next to me, and I’m a bit amused by their sibling rivalry, but I think they learned a lesson: no fighting. Otherwise, no couch!